The
Grateful Dead
Exercises in imaginary
albums:
1972 - '73 | 1976 - '77
| 1983
Imaginary Studio
Release: 1972 - '73:
Hunter's dream 1971 & 1972 Dead album -- and others
Sunshine
1972 Day Dream
Q. Were you sorry that all
that great original material on EUROPE '72 and SKULL AND ROSES was
never recorded in the studio?
Hunter: To me, all that
material was sort of the kicker follow-up album to AMERICAN BEAUTY
... I personally would've liked to hear those songs on an album of
their own.
Garcia: I concur. Instead,
we dribbled some of that music all the way up through WAKE OF THE
FLOOD.
-- from the Blair Jackson
joint interview, Jan. 31 1991
*************************************************
Interesting idea; Hunter's
songs got spread over several albums for reasons that owed less to
art and more to getting out of debt. But what if things had gone
differently? Let's see how they might have turned out.
First, the [then-] new
songs that appeared on those two albums
Bertha [debuted 2/18/71;
appeared on "Grateful Dead" ]
Wharf Rat [debuted 2/18/71; appeared on "Grateful
Dead"]
Playing in the Band [debuted 2/18/71; appeared on "Grateful
Dead" and then "Ace"]
Mr. Charlie [debuted 7/31/71; appeared on "Europe '72" ]
Brown-Eyed Women [debuted 8/23/71; appeared on "Europe
'72" ] Ramble On Rose [debuted 10/19/71; appeared on
"Europe '72" ] Jack Straw [debuted 10/19/71; appeared on
"Europe '72" ] Tennessee Jed [debuted 10/19/71; appeared
on "Europe '72" ]
This might have strained
the limits of vinyl for time, but certainly makes for a solid
serving. Had Pigpen's body and the band's credit both been in better
health, it might have happened.
But isn't Hunter rather
leaving a gap? What about all the other Hunter material composed
& performed at that tine?
All the songs to consider:
Bertha [debuted 2/18/71;
appeared on "Grateful Dead" ]
Wharf Rat [debuted 2/18/71; appeared on "Grateful
Dead"]
Playing in the Band [debuted 2/18/71; appeared on "Grateful
Dead" and then "Ace"]
Loser [debuted 2/18/71; appeared on "Garcia" ]
Greatest Story Ever Told [debuted 2/18/71; appeared on
"Ace"] Bird Song [debuted 2/19/71; appeared on
"Garcia" ]
Deal [debuted 2/19/71; appeared on "Garcia" ]
Sugaree [debuted 7/31/71; appeared on "Garcia" ]
Mr. Charlie [debuted 7/31/71; appeared on "Europe '72" ]
Brown-Eyed Women [debuted 8/23/71; appeared on "Europe
'72" ] Ramble On Rose [debuted 10/19/71; appeared on
"Europe '72" ] Jack Straw [debuted 10/19/71; appeared on
"Europe '72" ] Tennessee Jed [debuted 10/19/71; appeared
on "Europe '72" ] Comes a Time [debuted 10/19/71;
eventually appeared on "Reflections"]
He's Gone [debuted 4/17/72; appeared on "Europe '72"]
In addition, we might
potentially consider:
To Lay Me Down [debuted
7/30/70; appeared on "Garcia"]
Stella Blue [written before 1970; debuted 6/17/72; first appeared on
"Wake of the Flood"]
First, we see what Hunter
meant about the songs being spread out: one would have to buy four
albums to hear all the songs, and two of those were multi-volume
live records -- a diluted presentation indeed. Probably he expected
something more like this:
Bertha / Loser / Bird Song
/ Deal Greatest Story / Wharf Rat / Playing in the Band
Sorta slim by modern
standards, but just about par for the standards of 1971. "To
Lay Me Down" could be considered for an eighth song, but isn't
likely; the band had stopped performing it [last heard 9/20/70], and
we might wonder if Garcia chose it for his solo album because the
band had given it up (they didn't play it again until 1973). In
retrospect, one might wonder why TLMD wasn't on "American
Beauty"; perhaps they thought it to be as played out as
"Mason's Children" was. "Bird Song" was
similarly abandoned for almost a year after 8/24/71 -- having been
performed a mere 13 times.
Looking back to the
previous two albums, another candidate for the eighth song might be
something sung by Pigpen. But what? "Big Boss Man" and
"The Rub" were cover tunes, as was "Good
Lovin'", and the 1970 - 74 studio albums showed them strictly
devoted to originals. ("Empty Pages", anyone?). I guess
Pigpen just wasn't in a songwriting mood at the time.
Recording could have taken
place in May and June (with a quick vacation to the Chateau d'Heron
on 6/21), and their album release on 9/24/71 would then have been a
studio album instead of the real-life live release. No reason
recording in June should delay the late July debuts of
"Sugaree" and "Mr. Charlie", so that leads us to
our hypothetical 1972 album:
Sugaree / Mr Charlie /
Brown-Eyed Women / Ramble On Rose Jack Straw / Tennessee Jed / Comes
a Time
Bobby's "Ace"
album was recorded before they left for Europe, so that would be the
time this hypothetical Dead album would have been made.
************************************************
Chances are, however,
against them making exactly this album -- Bobby had already
performed three songs co-written with John Barlow, plus one written
on his own; they were bound to be considered for studio time.
Further, new songs came
into performance during 1972 & 1973 faster than the Dead could
record them -- no sooner did they begin their European tour than
they introduced "He's Gone"; then the first gig after
their return debuted "Stella Blue" written back in 1970.
Among the colossal number of debuts heard on 2/8/73 were three that
wouldn't find space on the "Wake of the Flood" album:
"China Doll" and "Wave That Flag" would have to
wait until 1974, and "They Love Each Other" would not be
recorded until 1975.
Perhaps the answer would be
that they would release two 1972 albums, as they had in 1970;
sticking with chronology, we get this
the pre-Europe '72 album
(in a sense, the original "Steppin' Out"!)
Sugaree / Mr Charlie /
Brown-Eyed Women / Ramble On Rose / Jack Straw / Tennessee Jed /
Mexicali Blues / One More Saturday Night (Comes a Time)
I put "Comes a
Time" in parentheses because its frequency drops noticeably in
1972; for whatever reason, Garcia didn't choose it as much as he had
in 1971. After nine more (increasingly rare) appearances, it
disappears entirely until 1976, which might be the better year (and
imaginary album) in which to place it.
This would leave us with:
Chinatown Shuffle [debuted
12/31/71]
Black- Throated Wind [debuted 3/5/72]
The Stranger [debuted 3/21/72]
Looks Like Rain [debuted 3/21/72]
He's Gone [debuted 4/17/72]
Stella Blue [debuted 6/21/72]
Mississippi Half-Step [debuted 7/16/72, but sound-checked 6/21/72]
-- which would be a rather
languid album, even for them; "Half-Step" and
"Chinatown" are the only up-tempo songs in the batch. We'd
probably have to throw in Bobby's "Cassidy" to help out,
like this:
Mississippi Half-Step /
Black-Throated Wind / Looks Like Rain / The Stranger Chinatown
Shuffle / Cassidy / He's Gone / Stella Blue
*************************************************
But wait! you protest; that
could short-change "Wake of the Flood"! Not really;
remember all those debuts from 2/8/73? Here they are:
2/8/73 debuts: Eyes of the
World China Doll Here Comes Sunshine Wave That Flag They Love Each
Other Loose Lucy Row Jimmy
Wow! That's almost an album
in itself -- one more song, and it would certainly be good to go.
Say, didn't we leave a Hunter/Garcia composition unused earlier ---?
"To Lay Me Down" returned to the rotation in November.
Well, it's stretching to make a point. In fact, if Pigpen hadn't
become so ill, I'd expect him to have another song to put in here.
You may recall that Bobby wrote songs too, but the "Weather
Report Suite" wouldn't be ready until September. Should we also
wait that long? Because the real "Mars Hotel" album had
only ONE Bobby song on it. That's right, only one -- and it's
"Money Money". Meanwhile, Phil has two. Does that seem
right to you?
Alright then: let our
mythical-ethical-icicle-tricycle 1973 album be front-to-back
Hunter/Garcia tunes; Bobby will get two on the next album. Recording
would take place in late April, possibly for a summer release (just
in time for the RFK gigs!). In September, we begin to see new
material ....
Weather Report Suite [debut
9/07/73 & 9/08/73, plus bits of the Prelude as far back as 1969]
Sing Your Blues Away [debut 9/08/73] To Lay Me Down [reactivated
11/09/73] US Blues [debuts 2/22/74] Roses [debuts 2/22/74] Ship of
Fools [debuts 2/22/74] Cassidy [debuts 3/23/74] Scarlet Begonias
[debuts 3/23/74] Money Money [debuts 5/17/74; retires four days
later] Unbroken Chain [almost certainly debuted 3/19/95] Pride of
Cucamonga [not played]
"US Blues", of
course, is just "Wave That Flag" with new (and better)
lyrics, so that could wait for the inevitable live album (recorded,
in this case, at Winterland in October). And "Cassidy" we
already felt compelled to use earlier -- which is fine; despite its
debut in 1974, it wasn't a regular song until 1976.
That leaves us with:
Scarlet Begonias / Sing
Your Blues Away / It Must Have been the Roses / Unbroken Chain Money
Money / Weather Report Suite / To Lay Me Down / Pride of Cucamonga /
Ship of Fools
Once again, TLMD looks like
a weak contender -- Garcia had two new ballads at this time, leaving
it up to Phil & Bobby to provide most of the up-tempo songs. No
wonder this song didn't see release by the band until 1981 ;-)
No matter; we have enough
for an album without it -- even if we omit thrice-played 'Money
Money' [a tie with 'If I Had the World to Give' for the
least-performed original song put on album by the band] -- and one
that represents the band at the time.
Meanwhile, some might ask:
should we leave out 'Unbroken Chain' because this lineup never
performed it? You've got to be kidding!
Imaginary Studio
Release: 1976 - '77
1972 - '73 | 1976
- '77 | 1983
The first tour of 1976 was
June 3rd through July 18th; after a pair of early August shows, they
resumed touring September 23rd thrugh October 15th. Following a New
Years Eve show and a pair of warmup shows in February, their Spring
'77 tour began on March 18th and concluded on June 9th.
In some ways, these tours
represent their own, unique year in the
evolution of the Grateful Dead. 1976 found them introducing 7 new
songs, reprising 4 of the barely-performed songs from 1975, and
revamping several older songs.
Some of the new material had appeared on REFLECTIONS,
more would appear on the TERRAPIN
STATION album, some would have to wait until 1978 for vinyl
preservation; a few songs.
1976 can fairly be seen as
the lead-in to 1977, which rose to a peak in the late Spring,
culminating in the June Winterland shows. In those 75 dates, they
established & refined a new approach to their concerts. Listen
to Keith, and you can hear a clear identity to this 'era' not
continued in later '77 shows. Perhaps there would have been more,
but then Mickey broke his arm, and fans had to wait until it healed
before the band returned to the stage. When they returned (a single
show on September 3, then a full tour beginning September 28) they
were no longer quite the same band; the drums were stronger, and
Keith seemed less interested in contributing.
Many good shows followed, but the magic of late 1976 & early
1977 had given way to a new intensity. For various reasons, the
album that would have represented this band was spread out, and
thereby diluted. Let's see what new material they were offering at
the time:
6/3:
Might As Well [new]
Cassidy [performed only once before, on 3/23/74]
LLRain [revival, already recorded]
They Love Each Other [rearranged]
Lazy Lightnin' / Supplication [new; already recorded by Kingfish]
Dancin' in the Streets [rearranged]
Samson and Delilah [new]
It Must Have Been The Roses [not changed]
The Wheel [already recorded, but new to performance]
6/4:
Mission in the Rain [new; previously recorded by Garcia's other
band]
FOTD [substantially changed]
6/9/76:
High Time [revival]
St Stephen [revival; new arrangement]
6/10/76:
Sugaree [rearranged for longer solos]
6/12/76:
Comes a Time [revival]
6/26/76:
Peggy-o [revival]
6/28/76:
Happiness is Drumming [sole appearance of primordial FOTM]
7/12/76:
All New Minglewood Blues [substantial rearrangement]
9/25/76:
It's All Over Now [technically a revival, but very few known
performances
before 1976]
2/26/77:
Terrapin Station [new]
Estimated Prophet [new]
3/18/77:
Fire on the Mountain [technically new, despite 6/28/76's
"Happiness is
Drumming"]
5/01/77:
Sunrise [new]
5/13/77:
Jack-a-roe [new]
5/15/77:
Passenger [new]
Iko Iko [new]
7/27/77:
>>TERRAPIN STATION album released<<
***********************************
Recording sessions began in
Sept 1975 for REFLECTIONS and Feb 1977 for TERRAPIN STATION. So,
conceivably, there were these unrecorded songs to choose from:
Might As Well
TLEO
Lazy Lightnin' / Supplication
It Must Have Been the Roses
Dancin' in the Streets
Mission in the Rain
Samson & Delilah
Comes A Time
Minglewood Blues
Peggy-o
It's All Over Now
Terrapin Station
Estimated Prophet
Fire on The Mountain
Sunrise
Jack-a-roe
Passenger
Iko-Iko
[Equinox]
What a serving, huh? Now,
there were reasons why these were released at various times, by
various personnel, but we need not concern ourselves with that.
Clearly, there was a LOT of material to choose from -- more than
could be piled onto a CD, let alone a vinyl platter which would
suffer a loss of sound quality & dynamic range after 17 minutes
of music per side.
In my alternate world the
albums would Just Exactly Perfectly represent the band's evolution.
So: what if .....
Alternate History: a 1976
Dead album (Let's call it BACK FROM THE DEAD)
Might As Well*
TLEO*
Lazy Lightnin' / Supplication
It Must Have Been the Roses*
Dancin' in the Streets
Samson & Delilah
Comes A Time*
It's All Over Now
Not a great album, maybe,
but certainly a fair representation of what they had on offer at the
time.
"Mission in the
Rain" was abandoned after June, so must be viewed as an
experiment that (for whatever reason) didn't ultimately satisfy the
band (which may be why they didn't record it in the first place).
All the same, four of these songs were recorded for REFLECTIONS
[marked *], so my imaginary 1976 album was already half-recorded by
the end of 1975
[REFLECTIONS was released Feb '76]. Of these, only "Might As
Well" was actually a new song. Of the remainder, three are
cover tunes -- two of which they had played before [admittedly,
though, "Dancin'" was substantially changed]. "Lazy
Lightnin'" would have posed a challenge to learn, but Kingfish
managed it, so it's entirely reasonable that the band could have
learned & recorded these four songs in the first months of 1976.
After all, look how many they learned in the five weeks that
separated
12/31/72 and 2/8/73!
"Peggy-o" and
"Minglewood" could easily be included to make a ten-track
album. Being cover tunes, though, they seem less important, and can
be used as B-side filler if not shifted to the next album.
"Dancin" would probably not include the chromatic riffs
heard in concert, as it was common at the time to abbreviate album
versions so as to include more titles. All the same, these
recordings might well have exceeded the time limit; I would expect
"It's All Over Now" to be regarded as the weak link, and
possibly
used as a B-side.
In my alternate world, this
would have been released in time for
Christmas '76. Meanwhile, we already have the follow-up -- recording
to occur [as it did in real life] in Feb 1977 ...
Minglewood Blues
Peggy-o
Estimated Prophet
Fire on The Mountain
Passenger
Sunrise
Terrapin Station
[Equinox]
[Jack-a-roe]
[Iko-Iko]
Now THAT would have been a nice album to see on 7/27/77. Even so,
there's too much for a vinyl album here -- hence my bracketing of
"Iko" and "Jack-a-roe". "Minglewood"
and/or "Peggy-o" might also have to wait until 1978 for
vinyl enshrinement (as "Minglewood" did in real life) or
(again) be used as B-sides / bonus tracks.
Possibly all four cover
tunes could be combined with "Equinox" for a third album,
but that would result in a strange compilation -- it wouldn't really
cohere. Also, whatever "Equinox" may have been to the
band, it was never performed, so therefore must necessarily be
viewed as filler (I know, I know: what about "Unbroken
Chain" -- At least it was performed eventually!)
In these semi-imaginary
albums, we see a better representation of the band's development
from 1976 through 1977. On the other hand, we'd lose a fast song
from TERRAPIN STATION ["Dancin'"], and add fuel to Phil's
perception that the band had too many slower songs. For proof, just
drop "Passenger" and see what's left!
******************************************
Footnote: The 1978
follow-up album could have looked something like this:
Shakedown / Minglewood /
Peggy-o / From the Heart of Me / Good Lovin / I Need a Miracle /
Stagger Lee / It's All Over Now / If I Had the World to Give /
[Jack-a-roe]
Rather heavy on the cover
tunes [4 out of 10], but Jerry & Bobby had both put considerable
composition into the material on their solo albums. In their
defense, "Good Lovin'" and "Minglewood" had been
in the band's regular repertoire back in the Pigpen era, so might
well have been seen as a return to their roots. Add in "Iko -
Iko", and it would be even more so -- perhaps it would have
been better if they'd devoted one side to new originals and the
other to cover tunes, like so:
I Need A Miracle /
Shakedown Street / From the Heart /Stagger Lee / (If I Had the World
to Give) Good Lovin / Jack-a-roe / It's All Over Now / Peggy-o /
Minglewood / Iko-Iko
and called it ROOTS. Now
that looks like an R&B Dead album worth
spinning!
*******************************************
As for "France"
or "Serengetti", well, they just don't seem to belong on a
Grateful Dead album (neither appear to have ever been performed).
You can throw them in if you want to! :-)
*Gracious appreciation to John Scott, Mike Dolgushkin, and Stu Nixon
for the amazing research that went into Deadbase, without which all
these conjectures would not have been possible.
Imaginary Studio
Release: 1983
1972 - '73 | 1976
- '77 | 1983
After Brent joined the band
in 1979, they issued an album of new material in 1980, but any
further material had to wait until 1987's IN THE DARK. While two of
the Garcia - Hunter songs on that album had only debuted the
previous December, most of the material dated from much earlier; in
fact, there was quite enough for an album by mid-1983, as a quick
glance at debut dates reveals:
8-28-81: Good Times [Brent]
8-28-82: Day Job & West L.A. [both Jerry tunes]
9-15-82: Touch
of Grey [Jerry]
9-17-82: Throwing Stones [Bob]
4-13-83: Maybe You
Know [Brent]
3-23-83: My Brother Esau [Bob]
5-13-83: Hell in a
Bucket [Bob]
Let's compare this with the
previous album by this lineup: Two [or three] Brent songs; three
Jerry songs (one slow & bluesy, two faster), and three Bobby
songs. They actually had *more* songs than they'd had for the 1980
album; GO TO HEAVEN had to be filled out with "Don't Ease Me
In", a cover tune dating from their earliest days.
Clearly, the problem was
not lack of material but lack of interest -- as was well-known at
the time (as show-goers from that era can attest). But this doesn't
have to bother us; there are enough decent-quality soundboards in
circulation to cobble a fair approximation of what that album could
have sounded like.
Oh, I can hear some of the
hardliners now: "Why bother?" After all, some of these
songs came to lead the lists of concert unfavorites -- and there are
good reasons for that. I too left my share of shows early when a
bazillionth performance of "Throwing Stones" started up;
late in the second set, this was a sure sign that whatever was going
to happen that night had already happened, and one might as well get
out before the crush. And "Day Job" is famously known as
the only song dropped at the audience's request -- perhaps the
sharpest clue to how Deadheads might differ from the Dead
themselves.
But art is shaped not just
by what is included but also by what is not. GO TO HEAVEN formed its
own unique view onto the band, ranging from Jerry's bluesy
"Althea" to Bobby's dense ballads; Jerry's Berryesque
rave-up to Bobby's nascent jam vehicle "Feel Like a
Stranger"; Brent's middle-of-the-road songs to Mickey &
Billy's strange percussion interlude. It wasn't a complete picture
of the band overall, but it was a solid take on the newest avenues
the band was pursuing.
The early 80s didn't find
the band really breaking any new stylistic ground; that had already
been done in 1980, if not earlier (this could be said of the 1987
recordings as well). But compiling the songs debuted in that time
reveals a similar pattern to that found on GO TO HEAVEN: several
bluesy songs (this time, Brent more than Jerry); an old-fashioned
rave-up in "Day Job" (more New Orleans than Berryesque,
but still) and good rockers in "Bucket" and "Maybe
You Know"; a truly promising jam vehicle in the early
renditions of "Throwing Stones" (although they later chose
a different approach), and Bobby's middle-of-the-road
"Esau".
Of course, it's important
to have good examples of each. I chose the following:
"Good Times"
5-22-82
"Maybe You Know" 4-15-83
"Touch of Grey"
10-09-82
"Day Job" 10-15-83
"West LA" 10-09-82
"Hell in a Bucket" 7-13-84
"Throwing Stones"
10-15-83
"My Brother Esau" 7-15-84
Obviously, some favorites
played into my choices, but mainly we're limited by the paucity of
good soundboards from this era. I leaned to earlier versions of
Jerry's songs because his vocal strength diminished in 1983 - 85;
also, the dates chosen above reflect a conscious desire to avoid
officially released products.
Bobby's songs typically
took time to come into form, and he was criticized for choosing to
perform songs that had insufficient polish. Let us not forget,
though, that this band is a group effort, and suffered at the time
from a rather low ebb of interest; Bobby may have found public
performance to be the only way to get his bandmates interested.
Whatever the cause, "Esau" and "Bucket" don't
really stand up until 1984, so I chose from the Greek performances
that year. 7-15-84, incidentally, may be better represented by the
mono Audience recording, as the guitars are very low (and drums very
high) in the Soundboard mix.
"Throwing
Stones", on the other hand, benefits in a different way from
early neglect; lacking finished form, it defaulted to some
distinctly free-form improvisation. What the eventual triumphant
arrangement gained in finished songwriting became our loss for
mystical examination, and relegated the song to a predictable
end-of-set resolution. Descriers of this song who mourn the lack of
jamming should look to 1982 - 83 renditions for some startling
surprises; 10-10-82 is popular enough in trading circles and
provides a fine example.
Brent is another issue.
Being the 'new guy', he had to jump on to an already-moving train --
even if, in retrospect, it was slowing down. Good as his songs
sounded on the HEAVEN album, they didn't shine in concert, and it
was 'back to the drawing board' for him. To his credit, he dug back
to roots just as easily as he had taken to commercial pop;
"Good Times" is a strong party-time blues, and "Maybe
You Know" is charged with a palpable enthusiasm. For my money,
we could also throw in "I Don't Need Love" from the
7-15-84 Greek soundboard (which -- unlike the rest of the show --
sounds better than the Aud for this song). 7-15-84's performance is
lovingly embellished with Jerry's nuanced guitar, and a true band
effort, showcasing Brent's ability for elegiac performance.
This is actually too much
music for an early 80s album, stretching thin the time allowed by
vinyl for high-quality sound. As on 1987's IN THE DARK, one of
Bobby's or Brent's songs would have to be relegated to 'B-side'
status -- probably the same song, "Esau", since Brent has
only two and nobody would seriously consider omitting a Jerry song.
This might have been resolved simply by editing down solos and
post-jams (as was done with "Dancin' in the Streets" in
1977), in which case we can justify a longer length today by
supposing a 'restored and expanded' edition, including "Don't
Need Love" as a bonus track. And this, I have found in the last
few weeks during my commutes to & from work, makes for a fine
album indeed.
What the heck -- as long as
we've gone this far, we might as well have a "Women Are
Smarter", which debuted 7-02-82. Any suggestions for a
particular date? :-)
Ramble On Joe ©
